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worryinglyinnocent · 7 years

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Fic: The Most Beautiful Mistake (12/16)

Summary: Belle French and ‘Rumpel’ Gold have been best friends for a long time, ever since Belle first walked into Gold’s yarn shop. One stormy night, one bottle of wine, and a couple of heartfelt confessions later, and their relationship will never be the same again.

Rated: NC-17 overall, this chapter is T.

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[One] [Two] [Three] [Four] [Five] [Six] [Seven] [Eight] [Nine] [Ten] [Eleven] [AO3]

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Twelve

If there was one person whom Gold categorically did not expect to see in his shop on a bright and frosty Saturday morning, it was Zelena. The two of them had barely exchanged a word in all the time that they had lived in the town, once Zelena had realised that he was not in any way, shape or form a rich or powerful man and she had decided to set her sights elsewhere for digging her claws into more influence and money. She needled him once or twice when their paths crossed, but she did not go out of her way to make their paths cross.

Gold would never turn down custom in his shop, he needed all the business that he could get, but there was something in the back of his mind that kept screaming at him to get rid of Zelena as soon as possible. She was invading his domain and suddenly the shop that had always been his home no longer felt safe. There was something predatory about Zelena in her everyday life, but at that moment she was looking positively vicious, the smile on her face like a lion that had a deer in its sights and was about to pounce.

“Can I help you?” Gold asked.

“Oh no,” Zelena said. “I just wanted to stop by to offer my congratulations. I hear that you’ll soon be expecting the pitter patter of a miniature librarian’s feet.”

Gold’s blood ran cold in his veins. How on earth did Zelena know? How could she know? Ruby and Belle and him and Neal were the only ones who knew and Gold liked to think that he knew all of them well enough to know that none of them would have told the witch standing in front of him.

She gave a cruel smirk then, taking his silence to be confirmation, but Gold still could not say anything, his brain going into panicked overdrive immediately as he ran through all the possible scenarios in his head. Each one was more unlikely than the last, and he although he knew on the face of it that none of what he was imagining was true - or at least not all of it could be true because some of it contradicted itself - he couldn’t help the alarm bells going off in his mind.

“Well, I am glad that little mystery got itself sorted out,” Zelena said. “You know we’ve all been dying to find out the truth about Belle’s little… misstep. After all, having a baby with a man who’s not her fiancé is quite the scandal. I have to admit that none of us ever suspected you. The faithful friend who’s followed her around like a loyal little dog for all these years. I suppose she finally must have taken pity on you. What a pretty mess it led to though.”

Gold closed his eyes, trying not to hyperventilate. They were just words, carefully chosen for the maximum possible devastation but they could not hurt him physically.

“Can I help, Zelena?”

Neal’s voice coming out from the back room had never been a more welcome sound.

“Oh no, just browsing,” Zelena said brightly.

“Really. Sounded like you were gossiping.”

“Is it really gossip when it’s the truth, though?”

Gold finally forced his eyes open to see Neal standing his ground, arms folded, one eyebrow raised, the very picture of Not Taking Any Shit, and through the panic settling in all around him, Gold felt a small surge of pride towards his son. Where he got his courage from he would never know, because it certainly wasn’t from him.

For a moment, Gold wondered if it might be from Belle. Neal had certainly spent enough time around her as a teenager to have picked up on some of her traits and carried them through into his adult life subconsciously. He felt a pang of something on realising that Belle had been parenting Neal without realising all this time. She’d been a better pseudo-parent to him than his ex-wife had been, at any rate. Was it any wonder that he knew she was going to be an amazing mother?

Neal’s voice pulled him away from the pleasant train of thought and back to the unpleasant confrontation that was going on.

“I think that no matter the veracity, spreading information in a malicious manner counts as gossip.”

“Malicious?” Zelena laughed. “I’m merely telling the public what they want and need to know.”

“No, they do not need to know. My father’s private life is his own, just as Belle’s is, and what happens between them is none of the rest of the town’s business, and it’s definitely none of yours. Now, if you have nothing better to do in here than harass my father, I suggest that you leave. Quickly.”

“Well, if my custom isn’t welcome then I guess I will take it elsewhere,” Zelena said coolly.

Neal nodded. “You do that.”

Sensing that Neal was not going to budge an inch and she was not going to get any more gossip out of the shop, Zelena turned on her heel and stormed out, the shop bell ringing violently as the door slammed.

Gold let out the breath that he didn’t realise he had been holding, and he felt the familiar fight or flight response kicking in, except in his case it was only ever flight that prevailed.

“Dad, go and have a cup of tea and sit down, I can take care of the shop if anyone else comes in. She’s a piece of work but it’s just words that she’s fighting with, she’s not going to do anyone any harm.

“I know that, I’m not worried about that. God, this wasn’t supposed to happen, no-one was ever supposed to find out.”

“Find out what, that you’re the father of Belle’s baby? To be honest I’d be kind of amazed that the rest of the town didn’t figure it out. You two being close isn’t exactly a secret so I hate to say it but you’d probably be top of their suspect list if they were looking for someone.”

“I know, I know, but that’s not the point. No-one was supposed to know!”

Gold went through into the back room and sat down on the spinning wheel bench, but he was too agitated to work; not even the wheel could calm the blind panic that was thrumming through his veins now, he was far too far gone.

“Dad?” Neal had followed him through into the back room, and Gold pressed his hands over his face, trying to pull himself together.

“Oh God, Belle’s never going to forgive me.”

“Dad, please let’s not get into this again. Come on, Zelena’s the bad guy in this scenario; she’s the one who’s spreading the news around, and Zelena’s like a rash, she’ll spread anything anywhere and is never good news. She’s probably got a pimply butt as well. What?” he exclaimed on seeing Gold’s incredulous look. “I’m still a college kid at heart when I’m not trying to get you and Belle sorted out - which should be a full-time job by the way.”

“No-one was supposed to find out. I wasn’t going to kid myself that no-one would ever make the connection, but no-one was supposed to actually have the truth confirmed. We were going to keep it between us, as few people as possible.”

“Why?” Neal asked.

“Why do you think?” Gold gestured to himself. “Look at me, Neal. I’m the laughing stock of this town; I always have been and that’s never going to change. It’s bad enough that Belle is friends with me and has to put up with what she gets because of that, but for the rest of the town to know she’s having a baby with me? She doesn’t deserve that backlash. She doesn’t deserve to be shunned because of me!”

Neal came and sat down on the bench beside his father, leaning back against the wall.

“You know, for someone so quiet and average in most aspects of life, you aren’t half dramatic. This isn’t the dark ages, no-one’s going to be making her wear a scarlet letter or burning her as a witch. Ok, some of the more prudish and conservative among the town might be uptight about the fact that she got pregnant with another guy whilst she was still technically with her fiancé even though that relationship was, to all intents and purposes, falling apart. But they already knew that, and I don’t think that suddenly knowing your identity is going to make anything ridiculously worse all of a sudden. You don’t know that Belle is never going to forgive you. You don’t know that Belle is going to do anything. All you know is that for some reason, this has now become public knowledge. You have no idea what Belle’s reaction is going to be.”

“Well she’s not exactly going to be happy about it!” Gold yelped. “Christ, Neal, what if she thinks I told Zelena?”

“Dad, be real. No-one ever tells Zelena anything. She just knows these things. And really, Belle knows you better than that. I don’t understand how you too can know each other so intimately and for so long and still not know these things about each other!” He sighed. “I despair. Look, if it’ll make you feel better I’ll go over to the library and tell Belle what’s happened and then you can work from there.”

“No!” Gold shot up from the spinning wheel bench. “No, I…”

He couldn’t really think of a protest, because then the shop door opened and the bell chimed, and Neal and Gold both looked at each other.

For a terrible moment Gold wondered if it might be Gaston, come to beat him to a pulp for his indiscretions with Belle. If it was then Gold would gladly take the punishment coming his way, he deserved it.

Neal looked at his father, no doubt trying to follow his mental process, and rolled his eyes with a sigh before going out to the front to see who had entered the shop. Gold stayed frozen where he was, listening to the conversation and waiting for the inevitable rage that would no doubt follow on the part of whoever had come in.

“Hi Neal.” It was Ruby. Not whom Gold had been expecting, considering she already knew the truth. “Is Gold back there?”

“Yeah. Not quite sure he’s in a state to receive visitors yet though. Zelena was in earlier, up to her usual tricks.”

“Right, I see. Well, she’s out there acting as town crier so I was going to come and warn him but I guess he already knows.”

“Yeah, he knows. Look, Ruby, maybe you can get through to him that this isn’t the apocalypse and his friendship with Belle isn’t going to implode because of this?”

“I’d love to, but technically I’m still on shift at the diner and I have to run back. Gold!” she called through. “This isn’t the apocalypse and your friendship with Belle is not going to implode because of this!”

There was the clattering of heels and Gold heard the door go again. Neal came back through, leaning in the doorway between the front and back.

“Do you believe me now there’s two of us, and you know Ruby’s Belle’s best friend who has her best interests at heart?”

Gold nodded unsurely. Really the only person who would assuage his fears was Belle, but he had no idea how he was supposed to face her after this. His mind kept coming back to the single question; how had Zelena managed to find out about his involvement in the first place?

“Dad?” Neal snapped his fingers in front of his father’s face. “Dad, for God’s sake go and talk to Belle, you’re not going to be good for anything until you do.”

“Right.” He didn’t move. “Right. Yes. Talking to Belle.”

“I think that there are some battles that you’re going to have to fight for yourself. Go and talk to Belle.”

With a great deal of reluctance, Gold got up and moved through the shop to the front door. There weren’t that many people about, and it would not take him too long to reach the library, but with every step he took he was sure that he could feel a thousand eyes on him, people whispering behind their hands as he walked, until the imaginary voices got so loud that they were deafening. He thought about what Zelena had said, contrasting it to Neal’s words. Zelena had said that Belle must have slept with him out of pity, that no-one would have thought that he could be the father, that he was just the friend. Neal had said he would be surprised if no-one had suspected. He knew deep down that Neal was the one to believe, that Zelena had just been needling him and trying to get a rise, some kind of reaction that she could use to her advantage. Neal knew both him and Belle far better than Zelena did, but that didn’t stop Gold from feeling the ice in the pit of his stomach when he recalled the words. Pity. He didn’t think it was pity that had sent Belle into his arms that night, but maybe…

He shook his head, not wanting to think about it. He didn’t want Belle’s pity, didn’t deserve it. Belle was sitting behind the issue desk as normal as he walked up to the library; her head was bowed over a book and she had a breakfast bagel in one hand. Nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary. She was perfectly happy in her little literary world, and he really didn’t want to disturb her, but he knew that Neal would despair if he went back to the shop without having spoken to her.

Taking a deep breath, he opened the library door and walked in. Belle looked up and gave him a little smile, waving him over to the desk.

“Hi.”

Now that he had got closer, he could tell that Belle’s expression wasn’t as happy as he had first thought, and as he reached the desk, they both spoke at the same time, saying exactly the same thing.

“I need to talk to you.”

Belle nodded, giving a soft laugh. “Do you think we need to talk about the same thing?”

“Zelena…” Gold began. “She was in the shop earlier, I didn’t tell her, I swear, I don’t know how she found out but now it’ll be all over the town in a matter of seconds and I’m so sorry Belle, this wasn’t supposed to happen and I don’t know how to make it right.”

The words came out in a jumble, almost incomprehensible in his haste to speak and get them out there.

“I’m so sorry,” he mumbled again.

“It’s ok,” Belle said. “I knew it was only going to be a matter of time before she found out. She finds everything out. It’s probably my fault. That was what I wanted to say to you. I was out with Ruby, Ariel and Mulan last night and they guessed, and well, I couldn’t lie. So that’s how it got out. I’m sorry, I should have asked you about sharing the news with other people as we’ve never really discussed it. But I think that in the long run this is better than trying to hide it.”

Gold couldn’t understand how she could be so calm about it.

“But this is bad,” he pressed. “You didn’t want to tell anyone. You didn’t tell anyone.”

“Yes, I wanted to keep it as quiet as possible to start with.” The corner of Belle’s mouth curled into a little smile. “I was more worried about Gaston than anything else, but he’s had time to get over it now. And I just wanted some time for us to get ourselves sorted out without worrying about other people getting into the mix. But I don’t mind if people know. It’s not some shameful secret I’m sitting on. I always knew that it would come out sooner rather than later. People would start guessing - we do spend a lot of time together.”

Gold nodded. The wind had been knocked out of his sails somewhat by the revelation that Belle wasn’t really mad at the whole scenario, and but he had never been so glad of it.

“Hey, come here.” She beckoned him round the desk and stood to put her arms around him in a hug, pulling him in close. “I know that this isn’t exactly the best way that the town could have found out, but I don’t care. You’re this baby’s father and you’re going to do a brilliant job of it. Anyone who thinks differently can shove it.”

Gold smiled, a part of him reassured at least. Belle was always so forceful when she put her mind to something and this was no different.

“So what happens now?” Gold asked.

“Well, I suggest that we just go about our lives as normal.” Belle smiled. “We should show the town that we really don’t care what they’re gossiping about. We’re a family, if a slightly unconventional one, and nothing’s going to change that, or change how I feel about this baby, or how I feel about you.”

“I just don’t want the town to think that…” He tailed off, not wanting to repeat the words that Zelena had spoken earlier.

“You just don’t want the town to think that…” Belle prompted.

Zelena was being ridiculous and everyone in the town bought her embellishments with a pinch of salt even if the fundamental facts turned out to be true.

“I don’t want to people to pity you,” he said eventually, because of all the things that he was thinking, that was the truest. “I don’t exactly have the best reputation in the town, and now, well, now there’s a baby in the mix.”

“Rumpel, I’ve been friends with you for almost a decade, I know you’re not exactly the most popular person in the town. But I’m still friends with you. I’m not suddenly going to start being ashamed of my acquaintance with you because the town knows you’re the father of my baby. That makes no sense.”

Neal had said as much, but hearing it from Belle made Gold feel slightly better.

“So, to prove how much I don’t care, and don’t need the town’s pity, I suggest that we get pie later.”

It brought them back full circle to when they’d cleared up their first misunderstanding and showed the town that despite what the world was throwing at them, they presented a united front, and Gold smiled.

“Yes, that sounds like a good idea.”

“Neal can come too,” Belle added. “He’s part of the family after all; it’s his siblet.”

“You’ve started using it too, I see.”

“Well, I think it’s cute. So don’t worry about Zelena and don’t worry about what the rest of the town might or might not be saying. I know that I’m not going to. And we shall have pie later.”

“All right. I’ll see you later.”

Gold felt happier as he made the journey back to the yarn shop, and Neal did not comment as he came back in.

“You’ll be pleased to know that we’ve had exactly zero customers come in baying for your blood, and Mrs Shoesmith bought some baby fourply to knit a hat for her latest grandchild; although given the amount she bought I’m thinking that the kid must have twenty-three heads. How’s Belle?”

“She’s fine. She’s her normal self.”

“So she’s completely non-plussed by this thing that you’ve got yourself into a complete tizz over? Why am I not surprised?”

Gold didn’t reply and returned to his position behind the counter, waiting for six o’clock to roll around. He still couldn’t quite shake the fear of someone coming in to chastise him for what he had done to Belle, but ultimately, it did not happen. He saw a few people pass by outside the shop exchanging looks and words, but no-one entered to give him a piece of their mind, and by the time he and Neal left the shop to meet Belle, he was feeling marginally more confident about avoiding a confrontation.

Belle was waiting on the corner outside the diner and the three of them entered together. A few people turned around and perhaps looked at them a little longer than was usual, but then went back to their meals. Mulan and Ariel were in the diner at the bar, chatting to Ruby and Granny, and as he and Belle took a seat in their usual booth, the group gave them encouraging smiles. Belle’s friends approved. For the first time since Zelena had come into the shop that morning, Gold felt that everything was going to be all right.

#rumbelle fic #rumbelle #woobie!Rumpel #Belle French #spinner!Rum #Fic: The Most Beautiful Mistake

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